Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

Well, dear friends, I have the unfortunate duty of informing you all that the Our Lady of Sorrows Province has lost a dear patriarch. Yesterday afternoon, Fr. Paul J. Pavese, OSJ, fell asleep in the Lord at Little Flower Manor in Wilkes-Barre, PA, where he had been living for the past three years. Fr. Pavese, 91 years old, had served the Oblates of St. Joseph as a religious for 73 years and a priest for 66 years.

When I was a young boy, Fr. Pavese was my pastor for a few years at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Pittston. I distinctly remember the first Mass I ever served as a new altar boy. Fr. Pavese celebrated. Even though it was my first Mass, the other altar boy never showed up, so I had to serve alone. At the end of the Mass, Fr. Pavese presented the newest parish altar boy to the congregation. I never forgot that, and neither did he. Years later, when I entered the seminary, he still remembered that, even though he could never remember my name (or anyone else's for that matter).

Fr. Pavese was a good man, a prayerful priest, and a dedicated Oblate. He will be dearly missed. Fortunately, God is merciful, and will surely be merciful to him. Now is a good time to remember my favorite Scripture passage, "To live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). For a man like Fr. Pavese, to live certainly was Christ, and I am firm in my belief that his death was indeed a gain.

Here is Fr. Pavese's official obituary.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.


This ought to serve as a fitting meditation on death and dying, for those interested.

Alright, Already

I know what you're thinking. "Hey, that blog by that seminarian...what ever happened to that?" I have to admit, I've been letting it slide. Now that it's slid virtually as far as I can fathom, however, I need to rope it back in and get it under control. That shouldn't be too difficult. Life at the seminary has a remarkable tendency to adhere to a certain status quo.

So, the rector went to and returned from Rome, where he spent a few weeks discussing ad nauseum Lord knows what minutia (and perhaps even a few important topics, too). His trip went well, and not much has really changed at the seminary while he was gone. There is, however, a wee spot of news that may be worth mentioning:

The Our Lady of Sorrows Province, the one based right here in Pennsylvania, is going to merge with the Guardian of the Redeemer Province, way out in California. Both links can be found in the sidebar. This will mean, when it has happened, a new sharing of administration, buildings, funds, and personnel. It should be interesting.

Other than that, school is going well, my brother is enjoying college life (though, he has disappointed me--his favorite class is a business course), and my sister is enjoying her last year of high school. Speaking of my sister, she has some interesting plans for the period following her graduation (that is, her life): She's applying for a job with the company (evidently, the company) that staffs the National Park Service, hoping to become a ranger in Alaska's own Denali National Park. I hope that works out for her.



Lastly, some readers seem to think that it's a "big deal" that I'm turning twenty-one in a few weeks...